In the early hours of Friday, the sound of the sirens of fire brigades echoed around the Mavdi neighbourhood of Rajkot as an emergency response team rushed to douse heavy flames emerging out of the Uday Shivanand hospital at around 1:00 a.m.
Sputnik tried reaching out to the hospital to get a clearer picture of the situation, but all telephone lines were temporarily unavailable.
Meanwhile, heart-wrenching still images from inside the hospital have made their way to social media.
Narrating details of the accident while expressing emotional condolences, netizens from the region detailed the catastrophe with chilling images from the now-destroyed ICU ward on the first floor of the hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief at the loss of lives in his home state Gujarat.
This is the second accidental fire to have led to the death of patients in a COVID-19 hospital in Gujarat.
Earlier in August, eight Coronavirus patients were killed when fire broke out on the top floor of a four-storey private hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.